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28/01/05 –
Intelligence Economique -
IE ? La France agace ! -
Economic Intelligence ? France irritate !
US
investors rail against return of French 'protectionism'
FT 28/01/05
"Every country has the right, if not the duty, to defend
its strategic industrial interests. The question is: how
should those interests be defined?
While US congressmen debate whether to block the takeover of
International Business Machines' personal computer business by
the Chinese Lenovo group, US investors abroad are complaining
about increasing protectionism in France.
Some investors fear France, which has long shown
interventionist instincts, is drawing an arbitrary squiggle
rather than a clear line around its national interests. If
that perception took hold it could damage efforts to sell
France as an attractive destination for foreign direct
investment.
Over recent months, a debate has been raging in France about
the need to protect the country's "economic
intelligence". The issue was first raised in 2003 in a
report by Bernard Carayon, a parliamentary deputy from the
ruling UMP party, which concluded that the French economy was
vulnerable to predatory foreign companies, spies, and
terrorist groups. The government had to do more, it said, to
protect a national core of "economic intelligence".
Some of Mr Carayon's recommendations have already been
incorporated into a legislative amendment, adopted by
parliament last November, increasing the government's
discretionary powers to block the takeover of strategically
important French companies by foreign investors. Particular
areas of sensitivity include aerospace, defence,
nanotechnology, and information systems.
A senior French intelligence officer, Alain Juillet, has also
been attached to the prime minister's office with the explicit
task of protecting and promoting France's "economic
intelligence".
Mr Carayon says France has been naive in failing to understand
the ruthlessly competitive nature of international capitalism.
He says some US investment funds, acting as front
organisations for the Central Intelligence Agency, are
determined to gain access to other countries' technological
secrets.
However, some foreign investors argue that this change in the
investment regime threatens a return to the country's dirigiste
past.
Stephen Pierce, managing director of the American Chamber of
Commerce in Paris, says the new French approach discriminates
against investors from non-European Union countries.
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"This is back to the arbitrary system of [President Valéry]
Giscard d'Estaing when Coca-Cola was prevented from buying
Chateau Margaux," he says. "Given the fact that they
cannot stop a European investing in France, who do you suppose
that this can be directed against? The Japanese and the
Americans. On the one side you are saying please come and
create jobs but on the other you are saying you cannot do
things without permission. It is a complete paradox."
Government officials deny a return to dirigisme. They
say they are simply making the rules more flexible to cope
with a fast-changing world. A system of prior authorisation
has been introduced to help guide foreign investors. France
will continue to comply with EU competition rules.
Eric Morgan de Rivery, a competition expert at the Paris
office of Jones Day, the law firm, says: "They want some
leeway in a world where technology is evolving at a very fast
pace. The rules will remain rather imprecise to allow a
minister to gain some leeway for himself."
The chief minister exercising that leeway is Hervé Gaymard,
the recently appointed finance minister. But foreign investors
can count on a formidable advocate for their cause sitting at
Mr Gaymard's dinner table most nights. Clara Gaymard, Hervé's
wife, is in charge of the French Agency for Foreign
Investment, responsible for improving France's investment
environment.
Tilting
the Playing Field: Economic Espionage Hasn't Gone Away Since 9/11
The Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs 28/01/05
"Overshadowed since 9/11 and the age of spectacularly explosive acts
of terrorism, economic espionage against businesses, industries,
technology, and trade interests continues to erode American economic
strength and, consequently, U.S. national security. The notoriety of a
French school dedicated to teaching the finer points of what is called
‘business intelligence,’ may be drawing more attention to a type of
warfare that, pre 9/11, was considered a grave threat to America..."
"...What makes the threat of economic espionage against the U.S.
unique from other security concerns is that the culprit nations are, by
all other accounts, America’s strongest allies and trading partners. In
a world of increasing globalization, competition, and economic
integration, however, they have become our biggest rivals. France, in
particular, has emerged as perhaps the most serious practitioner of
economic intelligence against the U.S. As one Clinton Administration
official told the New York Times in 1996, “when it comes to
economic espionage, no one is any better.”
France is “one of the most aggressive collectors of economic
intelligence in the world,” according to Schweizer, who authored the
1993 book “Friendly Spies: How America’s Allies Are Using Economic
Espionage to Steal Our Secrets” (Atlantic Monthly Press, 1993).
Utilizing espionage methods normally associated with traditional
intelligence targets, the French government has been accused of
infiltrating numerous American companies including IBM, Texas Instruments,
and Corning, which, among other things, produces cutting edge fiber
optics, semiconductors and advanced materials for the telecommunications
industry. According to Schweizer, these operations, mainly aimed at
stealing American technology, were carried out by France’s
“well-developed intelligence service,” the Direction Generale de la
Securite Exterieure (DGSE). Parallel to these state-run efforts, however,
France has also, in recent years, been cultivating a controversial
academic approach and institutional framework intended to develop a
strategic edge in the current climate of intense economic competition
between countries and between firms. In 1996, the Ecole de Guerre
Economique (EGE) or School of Economic Warfare was established by
Christian Harbulot, described by the French daily Liberation in
November of 2004 as an “ex-Maoist of the proletarian Left.” He still
heads the school, located in Paris..."
"...According to Harbulot, the EGE focuses on giving students the
tools to operate in a highly competitive business environment using
information collected from open sources, such as the Internet, otherwise
known as “methods of competitive intelligence.” The way in which this
information and intelligence is used however may reflect France’s
reputation as the world leader in nefarious economic practices..."
"...What one defines as legitimate and legal economic practices and
teachings may differ vastly from country to country, according to
Schweizer. While the United States government has adamantly resisted using
intelligence capabilities and resources to assist American businesses,
there has been criticism by many that this approach is unrealistic and
na•ve in the face of ever growing economic competition from the European
Union, China and others. The necessity of engaging in economic espionage
beyond traditional counter-intelligence is only magnified when one also
considers the extent to which other countries are using economic espionage
and other aggressive economic techniques against the United States.
Foreign economic espionage and intelligence-gathering damages America’s
economic health to an unknown degree. It is difficult to gain an accurate
estimate of the totality of the damage done to the U.S. economy.
The sixth Annual Report to Congress on Foreign Economic Collection and
Industrial Espionage, submitted yearly by the President, estimated the
total cost to U.S. businesses in the year 2000 to be $100-250 billion. To
stay on top it has been said that the U.S. must seriously reconsider its
policy against using economic espionage to help American businesses. There
is evidence in recent years, however, that the U.S. intelligence apparatus
has been used not only for counter-intelligence measures against economic
espionage, but also to ‘level the playing field’ against the tilt
brought on by the sort of “shady” aggressive techniques that are
alleged to be taught at the EGE..."
"...The Global War on Terrorism looks to be an ongoing struggle
against a determined enemy. American policymakers should not forget that
prior to al Qaeda’s 2001 strikes, the U.S. was already under siege in
war fought without bombs. France’s School of Economic Warfare is just a
reminder of a different type of threat that could be no less dangerous to
America..."
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